This invention relates generally to caps displaying certain information thereon, and more particularly to a baseball-type cap having novel illumination and display means on a front portion of the cap.
Hats and other headwear have become increasingly popular in recent years. In particular, casual "baseball-cap" style sporting hats are versatile, easily adjustable, and useful for protecting the wearer's eyes from sunlight or rain. It is well known that such hats may be decorated with screen-printed or embroidered names, logos, or other information, and are similar in popularity to screen-printed T-shirts. Another significant reason for the popularity of these hats is that the hats themselves are worn by professional (and not so professional) athletes in many team sports, and fans and supporters of these teams regularly wear caps adorned with their favorite team's name and/or logo. In fact, sales of screen printed and embroidered hats and caps is a big business, both at retail stores and as concession sales at sporting events.
Inexpensive baseball-type caps with advertising material thereon may be handed out or sold by manufacturers or businesses as a very practical type of promotional material. It is apparent that the more striking or obvious the advertising material is upon a cap, the more it will be noticed by the public and will thus be better advertising. A novelty type display on the front of a cap, being at normal eye level, is quickly noticed by everyone within view and provides an excellent advertising medium for any manufacturer or business dealing in soft drinks, sports devices, entertainment spots and the like.
It is the intent of the present invention to provide a baseball style cap having an attractive, illuminated panel on its front surface, which can carry a variety of different designs, phrases or logos.
Examples of conventional headwear of the type to which the present invention relates are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,146,979; 1,572,210; 1,744,777, and French Patent No. 1,221,782. Such patents illustrate enclosures for the storage of batteries and the like, and show arrangements for the inclusion on the headwear of a source of illumination for various purposes. These are relatively complex setups, involving the awkward and cumbersome placement of components, and the enclosures are specifically configured confinements dedicated to particular applications. No provision is made for removal of the light source for use apart from the headwear. Furthermore, the produced light pattern is inconvenient for applications such as night fishing where it is desired to direct a narrow beam of light, with little lateral projection, to a work area directly ahead and just above the waist of the wearer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,040 illustrates a mechanism for attaching a conventional flashlight illumination device to the brim of a hat. While this overcomes the lack of usability elsewhere of the lamp of the foregoing devices, the light is beamed down ahead of the user from above the visor, and no shielding is provided against lateral scattering.
The present invention distinguishes over these prior art devices in a number of significant ways.